Page 2 of Fated Guardian

“Thank you. I appreciate that.” I do.

Lyra sips her tea, her eyes closing. She smacks her lips and shakes her head. “I swear, you somehow manage to take herbs that I’m really familiar with and turn them into something else.”

I wiggle my fingers at her. “Magic.”

She laughs. “Okay. That’s fair. Do you really add magic to this?”

“No. But I am really good with plants.” I raise my glass.

“How does that work?”

This, I feel fine sharing. There are some things that the fae guard closely, and while I’m not about to tell her that I can never lie, I’ll happily divulge how my magic works. “They kind of… speak to me. It helps me to decide if they’re ready to pick, or if they need more time. Also, if they need something like wateror sunlight, I can easily make an adjustment. I never have to guess.”

Lyra sighs. “That’s so cool. I wish that I could do that.”

“You turn into a wolf. That’s pretty darn cool if you ask me.”

She sips her tea again. “I guess it’s one of those things. The grass is always greener, right?”

Yeah. I guess.

I’m leaning forward to pour her some more tea when a presence crosses my furthest boundary. The plants around the edges of my property are attuned to tell me when someone is near. In this case, it’s familiar.

Lyra must notice my wince, because she furrows her eyebrows in concern. “Everything okay?”

“Yeah. Just the day patrol at the edge of my… just thought I sensed the day patrol,” I rephrase.

I like that Lyra thinks my magic is cool. I don’t want her to think that it’s weird that I can sense the plants at the edges of my control, and that they can tell how different people walk. I could see that being a weird fact, and not a cool one.

“Oh, Nolan?”

I perk up at that. I’ve been aware of the day shift wolf who patrols the edge of Oakwood pack territory for a while now, but I never had a name for him. It’s not like I go into town to get to know the wolves, after all.

I look toward where he’s loping towards us. “Who?”

“Nolan. He’s one of the pack members, but I don’t know much about him. Really great guy, though.” Lyra smiles. “At least, according to his sister. There’s been a lot of unrest lately, and so Thorne doubled the patrols about three months ago. Nolan’s the one who was assigned to this sector, so that’s probably who you’re sensing.”

I can practically sense the wolf now. He’s close enough to almost be within earshot. “Big wolf, very sandy looking?”

“Yeah, and in his human form, he’s also big. Hazel eyes, brown hair. He’s pretty cute,” she winks. “Do you want me to introduce you?”

Under my fingertips, the glass cracks, turning to solid ice. Panic floods me. “What? Me? What? Why?”

“Because your magic just leaked out and froze your whole cup and about a one-foot square of this table,” Lyra smirks.

I look down. She’s right; there’s a square patch of ice on my beautiful pine porch table.

Fiddlesticks.

I take a deep breath, and the cold radiating from my fingers dissipates.

“I’m happy to introduce you to a cute guy, Coral.”

“Uh. I… He… I mean, he is cute, but…” I pause.

He’s close. Like, within earshot close.

“That’s okay. I’m fine. I don’t really think I should be mingling with the pack, because you know. It’s not… um… I can’t…”

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